Cloth holding devices for sewing machine work jogging attachments



Sept. 2, 1958 J. P. ENOS 2,849,973

' CLOTH HOLDING DEVICES FOR SEWING MACHINE WORK JOGGING ATTACHMENTS Filed June 1, 1956 mmvron John P Enos ATTORNEY United States Patent CLOTH HOLDING DEVICES FOR SEWING MA- CHINE WORK J OGGING ATTACHlVIENTS John P. Enos, Union, N. J., assignor to The Singer Manufacturlng Company, Elizabeth, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application June 1, 1956, Serial No. 588,668

3 Claims. (Cl. 112-77) This invention relates to work jogging attachments for a sewing machine, and more particularly, to cloth holding devices therefor adapted to prevent flagging of the cloth under the action of the reciprocating sewing machine needle.

It will be understood that the work engaging member of a work jogging attachment must be provided with an opening exposing an area of fabric sufiiciently extensive to accommodate the largest group of stitches which the attachment is capable of producing. The fabric within this exposed area being supported only at the edges, is susceptible to flagging, an undesirable condition in which the fabric being stitched rises and falls in response to penetration and withdrawal of the reciprocatory needle.

It is an object of this invention to provide in a work jogging attachment, a cloth holding device operative during penetration and withdrawal of the sewing machine needle to engage the fabrics Within the opening of the work engaging member of the attachment and adjacent to the sewing machine needle to strip the farbrics from the needle and thus to prevent flagging of the work.

In those instances in which the work being stitched with a work jogging attachment comprises a single ply or a number of superposed plies of fabric such as in plain buttonholing or in decorative stitching, the presence of a cloth holding device presents little problem as concerns manipulation of the fabrics into proper position beneath the work jogging attachment. Most work attachments, however, may be used on occasion to apply stitching to relatively small pieces of fabric or other material and on these occasions, manipulation of the work into proper orientation beneath the work engaging member of the attachment would be impeded by the presence of the cloth holding device. Reference is made to my U. S. Patent No. 2,669,202, Feb. 16, 1954, which discloses a buttonhole attachment capable of providing parallel straight line tacks of stitches especially suitable for the stitching of bound or piped buttonhole openings. In stitching a bound buttonhole by the method illustrated in my above mentioned patent, the garment fabric as well as a small patch of piping materialmust be arranged properly beneath the attachment. Using other known methods of bound buttonhole production, small folded strips of piping material must be arranged carefully beneath the work engaging foot of the attachment. When bound buttonholing or similar operations are to be performed with a buttonhole attachment, cloth holding devices of the type presently known in the art make introduction of the work into the attachment extremely difficult.

It is an object of this invention to provide a cloth holding device for a work jogging attachment which may be shifted readily into an inoperative position out of register with the opening in the work engaging foot of the attachment to facilitate loading of the work fabrics.

With the above and other objects in view which will hereinafter appear, this invention comprises the devices,

2,849,973 Patented Sept. 2, 1958 combinations, and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings of a preferred embodiment in which:

Fig. 1 represents a top plan view partly in vertical cross section of a buttonhole stitching attachment having the cloth holding device of thisinvention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 represents an enlarged side elevational view of a portion of the buttonhole attachment of Fig. l,

Fig. 3 represents a top plan view of the cloth holding device, and

Fig. 4 represents a side elevational view of the cloth holding device.

Referring to the drawings, this invention is applied to a buttonhole attachment comprising a frame formed with a socket 12 adapted to embrace the presser bar 13 of a sewing machine. The attachment frame is secured to the sewing machine presser bar by a thumb screw 14. The attachment frame also includes a fiat base plate 15 from which rises spaced upstanding lugs 16, 17. A barrel cam 18 fast on a shaft 19 journaled between the frame lugs 16, 17 is rotated in step by step increments by a needle bar actuated lever 20 journaled on the shaft 19 and carrying a spring loaded pawl 21 cooperating with a ratchet wheel 22 fast on the shaft 19. The barrel cam 18 is tracked by a follower roller 23 carried on a lever 24 pivoted at 25 to the frame base 15. Rotatably journaled in the lever 24 is a ratchet wheel 26 secured for rotation with a pinion 27 which meshes with a closed pattern rack 28 fitted into a plate 29 slidably pivoted beneath the attachment frame. A spring finger 30 fast on the base plate of the frame cooperates with the ratchet wheel 26 to impart step by step rotary motion to the pinion 27 thus causing the pinion to track the pattern rack 28. A compound motion is thus imparted to the plate 29 by the pinion 27 and comprises oscillatory motion transversely of the attachment frame as a result of the oscillatory motion of the pinion, and movement longitudinally of the attachment frame because of the tracking of the pattern rack by the pinion.

At the forward extremity, the plate 29 is formed with downturned fingers 31 pivotally secured to a work engaging foot 32 which is apertured, as at 33, to expose an area corresponding to the largest size buttonhole tack which the attachment is capable of producing.

The sewing machine needle, indicated in cross section at 34 in Fig. l, penetrates the work fabrics within the aperture 33 of the work engaging foot. To prevent flagging of the Work fabrics in the aperture 33, a cloth holding finger 35 is provided, the finger being disposed when in operative position immediately behind the path of reciprocation of the needle 34.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the cloth holding finger 35 is carried by a lever, indicated generally as 36, which lever includes two pivotally articulated portions as will be described hereinbelow, Considered generally, however, the lever 36 is carried on a fulcrum pin 37 which is fast in the upstanding lug 16 of the attachment frame beneath the needle bar actuated lever 20 and defines a horizontal axis of turning movement of the lever with respect to the frame.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, the articulated lever 36 comprises a vertically disposed member or portion 38 which embraces the fulcrum pin 3'7 and is formed with an arcuate surface 39 maintained in engagement with the needle bar actuated lever 20, as shown in Fig. 2, by means of a coil spring 40 extending between the extremity 41 of the vertically disposed portion 38 of'the lever and an arm 42 extending from the upstanding lug 16 of the attachment frame. The needle bar actuated lever 20 is formed with a cam projection 43 operative when the needle bar actuated lever 20 is raised to engage and depress the member 38 of the cloth holding lever 36,

portion 46 of the articulated lever which carries not only the cloth holding finger 35 but also an upturned arm 47 constituting an operator influenced handle. The horizontal arm 45 is pivotally secured to the horizontally offset portion 44 by a pivot screw 48 defining a vertical axis for turning movement of member 46 with respect to member 38. The arm 45 is also provided with an arcuate guide slot 49 which slidably accommodates a guide screw 50 fast on the offset portion 44 thus to provide interengaging stop means on said articulated members defining two extreme positions of relative angular adjustment therebetween. A fiexible dished washer 51 confined between the head of the guide screw and the arm 44 provides frictional resistance against accidental turning of the member 46 with respect to the member 38.

The screw 48 thus provides the axis of pivotal articulation between the portions 38 and 46 of the lever 36. Since the fulcrum pin 37 provides a turning axis for the lever 36 which turning axis is perpendicular to a plane containing the axis of pivotal articulation of the two portions 38 and 46 of the lever 36, turning movements imparted to the portion 38 by the needle bar actuated lever 20 about the axis of the fulcrum pin 37 will be transmitted to the cloth holding finger as though the lever 36 were made in one piece; that is, the pivotal articulation of the lever portions 38 and 46 will not affect the normal operation of the cloth holding device.

Using the upturned arm 47 as a handle, the operator may at will turn the member 46 outwardly into a throw out position, as illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, in which the cloth holding finger 35 will be disposed at one side of the opening 33 in the work holding foot 32 of the attachment. The work may then be manipulated without interference beneath the work holding foot and when properly oriented the cloth holding finger may be returned to operative position within the opening 33 by means of the arm 47, thus readying the attachment for sewing.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein is:

1. An attachment for a sewing machine having an endwise reciprocating needle bar and a substantially fiat work support, said attachment comprising, a frame, a Work engaging foot slidably pivoted to said frame, needle bar actuated work jogging mechanism carried by said frame and operatively connected to said work engaging foot, a cloth holding lever including two portions, means pivotally interconnecting said two lever portions on an axis disposed substantially perpendicular to said work support, means defining a fulcrum for turning movement of one of the portions of said cloth holding lever with respect to said frame on an axis substantially parallel to said fiat work support, a cloth engaging finger carried by other of said portions of the cloth holding lever, and means on said work jogging mechanism to engage said cloth holding lever to move said cloth engaging finger toward and away from said work support.

2. An attachment for a sewing machine having a reciprocating needle bar and a substantially fiat work support, said attachment comprising, a frame, a work engaging foot slidably pivoted to said frame and formed with an opening adapted to expose an area of fabric to be stitched, needle bar actuated work jogging mechanism carried by said frame and operably connected to said work engaging foot, a cloth holding lever including two portions, means pivotally interconnecting said two lever portions on an axis disposed substantially perpendicular to said work support, a cloth engaging finger formed on one of the portions of said articulated lever, means defining a fulcrum for turning movement of the other portion of said articulated lever with respect to said frame on an axis perpendicular to a plane containing the axis of pivotal articulation of said lever portions, means on said work jogging mechanism to engage the fulcrumed portion of said lever to move said cloth engaging finger toward and away from said work support, and interengaging stop means carried by said articulated lever portions defining extreme positions of angular adjustment therebetween, said cloth engaging finger being disposed within the opening in said work engaging foot in one extreme position of relative angular adjustment of said lever portions.

3. An attachment for a sewing machine having a reciprocating needle bar and a substantially flat work support, said attachment comprising, a frame, a fork arm pivoted thereon adapted for connection with the needle bar, an articulated cloth holding lever including two members pivotally interconnected for relative turning movement about an axis substantially perpendicular to said Work support, means pivotally securing a first of said members to said frame on an axis disposed substantially parallel to said flat work support and forwardly of the pivotal axis of said fork arm, the second of said members having a cloth engaging finger at its forward end, said first of said lever members extending rearwardly below the pivot of said fork arm, and cam means on the latter to engage the first of the members of said lever to move said cloth engaging finger upwardly.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 896,949 Stevens Aug. 25, 1908 2,547,925 Connors Apr. 10, 1951 2,652,796 Russell Sept. 22, 1953 

